


Last Resort

by snekwami



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Friendship but it's angsty, Gen, S3 spoilers, Time Travel, but I changed a lot anyway so you don't need to have played that, lots of existential despair to go around, mild spoilers for the Timetagger episode, technically this is an AU of the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 12:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18965512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snekwami/pseuds/snekwami
Summary: The moon is falling. Alix has three days to stop it. This would be a much easier task if she hadn't been transformed into a bunny rabbit...





	Last Resort

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't watched Timetagger, I'd advise you to watch that first.
> 
> Anyway I realized a Majora's Mask AU (yknow, the Zelda game) would work fantastically with Alix, so I decided to write it, though I did change up a lot of stuff so it honestly doesn't matter whether you know anything about the game or not.
> 
> Just a warning - I've rated this fic G for now, because there's nothing dodgy in it, but the source material is considered the darkest Zelda game for a reason. I don't know yet if I'll lighten it up or not. But yes! Majora's Mask is terrifyingly creepy and depressing and nightmare-inducing, so watch out :D

Alix wandered into the woods, cursing Nathaniel with every step. Did he really have to go and get himself lost again? This wasn’t the first time she would have to go get him out of there, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. These woods were _dangerous_ , and he knew it, and yet that dork still carried on going in! All because he needed somewhere dark and gloomy to hang out whenever Alix was busy, somewhere that would satiate his morbid emo soul.

Seriously, where was he? Usually she would have found him by now. It was mistier than usual, and the sun seemed to have set already, making it rather difficult to see. Alix pulled her watch out of her pocket to check the time – surely it must be quite late. Stupid Nathaniel, honestly. She had better things to be doing with her time than running after him and getting him out of trouble.

Pocket watch still in hand, she paused as a shadow fell over her.

“Alix?”

That voice… it sounded vaguely familiar. Alix turned around, only to see that a strange masked figure was standing there looking over her.

No, wait – _floating_ there looking over her. Though not much taller than her, this strange person was quite literally floating in mid-air.

“Just the person I was looking for,” the strange, floating person said now, a somewhat sinister little smile appearing on his face. His voice was low and echoed through the woods. He seemed to be wearing some kind of weird hat, and underneath it his hair looked almost like a bunch of paintbrushes dipped in red ink.

In other words, this guy was a real weirdo.

Well, Alix did not have time for that. She had a friend to be finding, and being confronted by magic floating weirdos who somehow already knew about her was not on her to-do list.

“I have no idea who you are,” she said. “Have you seen Nathaniel by any chance? Weird emo kid with ginger hair? You can’t miss him.”

To her surprise, the weirdo threw back his head and laughed. All in all, it was a very evil-sounding laugh. Did he sound evil on purpose, in order to fit better with his aesthetic? He definitely looked like your typical villain anyway, with that dark domino mask obscuring his face and the odd box thing hanging off his arm, probably some kind of torture device or something.

“I know where Nathaniel is,” he snarled, his evil grin widening, “and you won’t find him. Not that you care… after all, if you’re content to leave your friend to wander around the woods all alone, then it’s your fault if he disappears, never to be seen again. Now give me that!”

For a second Alix was too busy trying to figure out what on earth this weirdo meant, and didn’t realize he had swiped the watch right out of her hand until it was too late.

“HEY WAIT – GIVE THAT BACK–”

“Finders keepers!”

The weirdo zoomed off at top speed, still up in the air.

Without wasting a moment, Alix ran off after him. That watch was a family heirloom, she couldn’t just let it be stolen! Especially not by some flying masked supervillain! With every step she knew she was getting further and further away from home, and probably away from Nath too, and now the trees here were beginning to look unfamiliar to her. How far into the woods was she anyway? Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long to find her way back out once she had dealt with this weirdo.

Up ahead it looked like he had come to a stop in the middle of a clearing. Alix ran over and jumped up, trying in vain to reach him as he held her watch far above her head.

“Aw, does the tiny baby want her precious watch back? Too bad!”

Pulling a pencil out from behind his ear, he turned it to the eraser end and began scrubbing at the flat side of the box on his arm, like he was rubbing out a drawing. Almost instantly, the ground beneath Alix began to crumble.

Was this guy magic? Was he literally _erasing the ground?!_ There was no time for contemplating it – she tried to keep her balance, but the next thing she knew, the ground had vanished entirely and she was free-falling down a long, earthy tunnel, far below the woods above her. The villain’s laughter still was able to be heard, bouncing off the rocky walls.

Well, now she was _really_ far away from home, wasn’t she? And from Nath too! Even if she somehow survived this fall, there was no way she’d be able to scale back up the sides of this chasm and make her way back.

Her landing was surprisingly light. She seemed to have ended up in a dark underground cave, sitting on a large flower, with shallow water all around.

The sound of the villain’s laughter was getting closer again, and she looked up to see that he had floated down after her, and now drifted across to the other side of the cave.

“Oh, so you survived your trip?” He drew something on the box on his arm, and a door materialized behind him on the side of the cave wall. “It doesn’t matter, you’re powerless now, and you’ll be dead enough soon anyway…”

What was he on about? Alix tried to say something, only to realize with horror that her voice just wasn’t working. What had happened?!

The villain laughed again – she was getting kind of sick of it now. “Bunny got your tongue? Take a look at your reflection!”

As much as she didn’t want to listen to whatever nonsense he was saying, she peered over the edge of the flower and into the water below.

A bunny was staring back at her.

No way. _No way!_

This guy had somehow turned her into a _bunny???_

“Your new look suits you! Now I’ve got some murdering to be getting back to, so I’ll be leaving. And I won’t have any use for this kwami anymore either, will I…”

He grabbed something from under his hat and threw it across the cave, where it landed at Alix’s feet. (Well, her paws. This was going to take some getting used to.) And with that, he turned around and went through the door.

Alix looked down at the thing he had thrown. It seemed to be some kind of little rabbit plushie, smaller than her, covered in fluffy white fur. It looked pretty adorable, actually. What had the weirdo been using this plushie for, anyway? He had called it a “kwami” but she had no idea what on earth that was…

The plushie gave a feeble cough and opened its eyes. Oh – so it wasn’t a plushie after all. Maybe it was a baby bunny? Poor thing, having been chucked across the room like that. If only Alix was still a human, she might have been able to take care of it. In this bunny form she felt pretty useless.

It was rather a shock, of course, when the not-plushie suddenly began to speak.

“Oh no, oh no, the Evillustrator! He managed to kidnap me! Do you know where he went? I saw the butterfly mask on his eyes, he must be using Nooroo’s power to strengthen himself! With such a power at his hands, who knows what he’ll do? I wish my own power wasn’t drained, I might have been able to stop him, but he knocked me out and now I don’t know what to do…”

Alix just stared. Considering she couldn’t speak, it wasn’t like she could have done anything else anyway. The creature was floating off the ground, just like the weirdo… _Evillustrator_ , apparently… had done, and its voice was high-pitched and frantic, like it had too many thoughts and not enough time to say them.

Its large eyes came to rest on Alix. “Oh! Can you understand me?”

She nodded.

“So then you’re not a real bunny, are you? Did the Evillustrator transform you?”

She nodded again, relieved. As odd as this whole situation was, it was nice to have a bit of friendly company.

“You poor thing! We should team up and find a way to get you back to normal, and stop the Evillustrator in whatever evil plan he’s up to.” The creature cleared its throat. “My name is Fluff. I’m a kwami – a magical creature with hidden powers. Unfortunately my powers were lost centuries ago, so I don’t know how much use I can be, but I’ll do what I can. My friend Nooroo, another kwami, has been captured by a human and his powers are being used for evil. I was captured too, and I assume the Evillustrator used me to transform you into an image of the animal I represent…”

Alix simply nodded along. Magical creatures? Yeah, that all sounded totally normal, not out of the ordinary at all or anything. Transformations? Just your everyday occurrence. This was all fine.

Fluff the kwami smiled at her. “I’m sure you’ll find some way to tell me your name too later. For now, we have to get out of here and find the Evillustrator! You ready?”

Well, it wasn’t like there was anything else to be done here, was there? If Alix was going to find Nath and return home, she clearly first needed to stop the Evillustrator and regain her human form. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long.

She bounced across the cave room and to the door on the other side. One good thing about being, well, a _bunny_ , was how quick she seemed to be able to move around. She had always been quick, of course, even as a human, but that usually tended to be when she was wearing skates, and not when her tiny legs were trying to take big strides.

Fluff followed her, flying over with minimal effort. What was it with everyone but Alix being able to fly? It was unfair.

Heading through the door, they made their way through several repetitive underground passages, each one seeming to become more and more linear than the last, with underfoot dirt giving way to gritty stone cobblestones and the rounded walls straightening out. The Evillustrator was still nowhere in sight. Even his deranged laughter couldn’t be heard – he must have been quite a way ahead.

“This is starting to look a little familiar,” Fluff muttered, zooming ahead. “I believe we’re in the passages beneath the Clock Tower. Can you hear it ticking?”

Alix stopped to listen for a second. Sure enough, there was a distant, slightly muffled ticking noise at regular intervals. Fluff must be right, they probably were under some sort of clock – maybe the one from in town, back home? Alix wasn’t even sure she wanted to get back there, not in this form. That would be so embarrassing.

Following more passages, the ticking became louder, and they soon found themselves in a large wooden room with huge cogs and gears going round, stretching up high towards a distant ceiling.

“Look, a door!” Fluff pointed at the other end of the room, where sure enough, two tall double doors stood. “I do know this place! Come on, let’s go through…”

They had just reached the top of the steps leading up to the doors when there was a rather ominous chuckle from somewhere behind them, followed by a raspy, quiet voice:

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”

Alix turned around. There at the bottom of the steps stood an old man, one who looked even shorter than she would be as a human, stroking his goatee thoughtfully as he watched them.

Please say he wasn’t evil. At least he wasn’t floating, so that was a good thing, right?

The old man took a few steps forward, but stopped a respectful distance away before he spoke again. “My name is Master Fu. I study kwamis. I’ll admit, I witnessed what happened to you, I saw that the Evillustrator used his dark powers to transform you against your will, and that he took something very important from you.”

Oh yes, the pocket watch. She really, _really_ needed that back. No one was allowed to touch her pocket watch without her permission – not even Nath – and the fact that some slimy villain had his hands on it was just–!

“I see you are already eager to claim back what is rightfully yours,” Master Fu said, with a small smile. “But it will be difficult without your true form, even with that kwami to help you. I can help you, if you want…”

“Oh yes, please do!” Fluff said. “We need all the help we can get! This poor bunny can’t even speak!”

“Very well. Bunny, if you can find the Evillustrator and take back what he stole from you, bring it back to me here and I will transform you back into your human form.”

Alix nodded. She’d gladly fight an evil supervillain for that.

“But in exchange, you must also bring me the kwami Nooroo. The one who is being held hostage right now.”

“Poor Nooroo,” Fluff sighed. “He’s my friend, or at least he certainly was a long time ago, although I haven’t spoken to him much recently, and he doesn’t deserve to have his powers used for evil like this…”

“Exactly. Bring him back to me here, and I will heal him from whatever harm was done to him.”

“We’ll do it. Right, bunny?” Fluff looked down at Alix, who nodded her head and tried to clench her paws with determination. It probably looked stupid, but it got the point across, as Master Fu smiled again.

“Good. However…” His voice became even quieter, almost impossible to hear over the machinery. “I will be leaving this place in exactly three days from now. Complete this quest before then, or… well, I doubt you’d last much longer.”

“W-what?” Fluff squeaked.

“You heard me. Now you’d better get started or you’ll run out of time.”

“Oh… uh, okay…” Fluff floated over to Alix, giving one of her long bunny ears a gentle nudge. “I don’t know if I quite understand everything that’s going on, but if we do what he says, we might have a chance! Let’s get going.”

Alix turned back to the doors and gave them a push. Sunlight began streaming in, so strong her eyes took a few seconds to adjust. Was it daytime again already? Surely she couldn’t have spent the whole night down in these passages, could she? Who even knew – this situation was already so weird, a bit of time dilation wasn’t that out of place.

She took one last look back at Master Fu, who was still just standing there watching, before hopping through the doors and out into the sunlight with Fluff beside her.

 

* * *

 

**Dawn of**

**The First Day**

**\- 72 Hours Remain -**

 

* * *

 

Out in front was what looked like the courtyard of a town. There were various buildings surrounding it. From somewhere behind, high up above in the building they had just come out from, a low bell sounded out six times. A little dog was busy chasing its tail next to a market stall. Over on the other side of the courtyard, a kid ran across with a bubble wand, before being scolded by a nearby guard.

Fluff smiled, taking a deep breath. “Ah, we’re here… Clock Town.”

Clock Town? That seemed like a very on-the-nose name for a town. Alix took a few steps forward and then looked back up at the building they’d exited. It was indeed a huge tower with a giant clock at the top – currently showing that it had just gone six o clock. Six in the morning, most likely, judging by the crowing of a rooster on a nearby rooftop.

And then she saw it.

_The moon had a face on it._

Surely that couldn’t really be a moon – maybe it was a hot air balloon or something, and just looked ridiculously solid. The moon definitely did NOT have a face on it back where Alix was from.

It wasn’t just any face, either, but one with a very anguished expression, somewhere between angry and downright miserable. Not only that, but it was… _suspiciously close_. It hung above the clock tower, looming large and creepy.

“I don’t remember the moon being that close last time,” Fluff said, frowning up at it. “It looks a little more upset right now too…”

Right, so apparently the moon having a face wasn’t weird for Clock Town, considering Fluff seemed used to it. In fact, considering that no one nearby had questioned the fact that there was a miniature flying, talking rabbit around, magic in general probably wasn’t weird for Clock Town.

It was certainly weird for Alix. But then again, this whole day had just been so surreal that she was half sure she was dreaming, and she may as well just go with it for now. Maybe soon she’d wake up, and she’d be back home as normal, with her pocket watch nice and safe, and Nath nice and safe too…

“So,” Fluff said. “We have three days to get those things that Master Fu asked for. Three days… that’s… seventy two hours! Oh my gosh, that’s practically nothing! Don’t you need sleep too?”

Alix shrugged – or as much as she could in her bunny form. Despite having apparently stayed up all night inside those passages, she wasn’t sleepy at all. She wasn’t even hungry or thirsty. Yeah, this probably was a dream, wasn’t it?

“We’d better get a move on,” Fluff continued. “Our main task is to find the Evillustrator, right? We should ask around and check if anyone’s seen him. Well, you can’t talk, but I’ll do the asking for you, alright? We can do this!”

Fluff whizzed over and gave Alix’s paw a little tap, like a high five, before heading off to look for someone to ask. That had been… kind of adorable, honestly. If only Alix could talk! She had a lot to say, and being silent like this was no fun.

For now, though, the important thing was finding the Evillustrator within three days. Once they’d done that, she could get her pocket watch back. And once she had that back, well… maybe then she’d finally be able to find Nathaniel, and they could go back home.


End file.
